Mechanism for adjusting propreller-pitch



W. L. HUBBARD. MECHANISM FOR ADJUSTING-PROPELLER PITCH.

APPLICATION FILED DEC.4, 1318. 1 350, 3 1 2. Pa ed Aug 24, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

w. L. HUBBARD. MECHANISM FOR ADJUSTING PROPELLER PlTCH.'

APPLICATION FILED DEC.4,1918. 1,350,312, I Patented Aug. 24, 1920.

2 SHEETS SHEET 2.

- useful Improvements .justing Propeller-Pitch, of which the fol- UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFICE.

wamnn L. HUBBARD, or rams, rumors.

. IECHANISM FOB ADJUSTING PBDPELLEB-PITCH;

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WALTER L. HUBBARD, a citizen ofthe UnitedStates,residin at Ferris, in the county of Hancock and tate of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and in Mechanism for Adlow-ing is a specification,reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to propellers, and particularly to propellers inwhich the pitch I of the blades may be adjusted so as to increase ordecrease the degree of the pitch.

One of the objects of the invention is the provision of a very simpleconstruction to this end wherein the propeller blades are connected tothe shaft-of the propeller in such manner that the blades may rotateupon their own axes, provision bein made whereby the blades may be sorotate elther automatically under the control of the governor or by handas the operator may desire to adjust the blades.

A further object is to provide a'propeller of the character above statedwherein the blades are rotated automatically in accordance withthe-horse power of the motor and load to be carried so as to increasethe pitch of-the blade as the load is reduced or the power increased,and decrease the pitch of the blade if the power is decreased.

A further object is to provide mechanism for automatically adjusting theblades as to. pitchin correspondence with the speed of rotation of thepropeller shaft, and to provide manually actuatable means whereby thegovernor may be shiftedinto orout of a neutral position or to reverseposition.

A further object is to provide a mounting for these axially rotatableblades which will be thoroughly strong and willsecure a full bearing forthe blades, the mounting being ada ted to support any number of pairs ofbla es.

A further object is to provide means whereby wooden blades may rotatablysu ported in said mounting.

ther objectswill appear in the course of the following descri tion.

My inventionis il ustrated in the accom- Figure 1 is an elevation ofapropeller constructed in accordance with my invention' .l

' Fig.9 is a sectional View of the propeller Fi in f hr the blade shankof the protpeller;

of a propeller provide The r dles 14 w I I Specification of letter: rum.\Patented Aug. 24, 1920. Application and December 4, 1918. Serial m.aaazso.

illustrated in Fig. 1 in a plane transverse to the shaft, one of thedisks 11 being removed; Fig. 2 is a detail view of the blade shanks ofthe propeller disposed in the mounting illustrated in Fig. 1; Fig. 3isan elevation showing a governor controlled propeller;

4 shows a preferably form of mountig. 4 is a face view of one o thepro.-

peller carrying sections showing the wooden shanks of the propellersdisposed in the mounting illustrated in Fig. 4; v

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a line artly in section of a modified form of bla e support;

Fig. 7 is a face view of the blade support .shown' in Fig. 6 with one ofthe sections l1 removed, the shaft and attaching bolts being in section;Fig. 8 is a face view of one of the propeller blades detached from itsmountings; Fig. 9 is an elevation (partly broken away with a governorand the mechanism for manually controlling the governor;

FigQlO is a section on the line 10-10 of Fig. 9; and

- Figs. 11, 12 and 13 are diagrammatic views showing various positionsof the hand controlled governor. I

Referring to Figs. 1 to 7 10 designates the propeller shaft of either anaeroplane, a motor boat or any other vehicle designed to be propelled bya screw, this propeller shaft carrying upon its extremity a plurality ofdisks illustrated in Fig. 1 as two in number, these disks being keyed,splined or otherwise connected to the shaft to rotate there? with andheld from lon itudinal movement circle of which the axis of t e shaft isthe center, the confronting faces of the disks being cut away to formeach one-half of the shaft passage so that when .the disks are broughtinto contact a complete pair of shaft passages will be formed.

ich are dis osed throu he shaftpasages 12 and w ieh are re at; 1y

11ers 13 are provided with s'pin- 17, these links 19 being ofcoursepivoted to the collar 18 and to the ends of the arms 17. It will now beobvious that by sliding the collar 18 along the shaft 10 in onedirection or the other the propeller blades will be rotated an equalamount tochange the pitch of these blades and that the blades may, bereadily brought therefore from a neutral position where both blades areparalled to the plane of their rotation, to a position where the bladesare to a greater or less extent inclined to this plane and that theblades may be shifted to an inclination on either side of the neutralplane of the blades so that if the propeller is used for boats or thelike, the propeller may be easily reversed to cause a reverse movementof the vehicle without reversing the motion of the drive shaft 10.

While the adjustment of the blades may be secured by means of a lever20, connected to a shipper ring 21 mounted on the collar 18 and thus theadjustment of the blades controlled entirely by the hand of theoperator, yet it is also possible with my invention to connect theblades to a ov ernor so that the pitch of the blades will be regulatedby the governor and thus the vehicle be driven at a maximum speed. Tothis end, as illustrated in Fig. 3, the arms 17 may be connected bylinks- 22 to governor arms 23 pivoted upon a collar 24 which in thiscase is fast upon the shaft 10. This collar 24 is the equivalent of thecollar 18. The governor arms carry the governor balls 25 and it isobvious now that with the arrangement illustrated in Fig. 3, that cen-'trifugal action will throw the governor balls outward against the forceof springs 'or like devices and that the outward movement of the arms 23will cause a rotation of the blades 13 from a position where the pitchis not steep relative to the plane of rotation to a position where theblades have a greater pitch relative to the plane of rotation so as tothereby automatically control the speed of the machine and cause anincrease in the R. P. M. of the shaft 10 to cause an increase in thespeed. As soon as the speed of the engine ilecreases, the governor armswill be shifted inward by the springs in the usual and well knownmanner, and the pitch of the blades will be decreased correspondingly.

While I have heretofore illustrated the .the disks 11, grooves 12extending in one direction and' The disks 11" blades 13 and the bladespindles 14 as if piece and of metal,

slightly corrugated as at 27 upon their inner faces, and slightlytapered from the end carrying the arm 17 to the opposite end so that theshank 13 e 13 may be clamped securely of the bla in place against anychance of disengagement. Of course this metallic tubular member ismounted'in anti-friction bearings upon the disk 11 in precisely the samemanner as heretofore described.

Where the propeller is to be made with four blades it is constructed onthe same principle as heretofore described except that an intermediatedisk 28 is disposed between one face of the disk haviiig the other faceof the disk having grooves extending at right angles to the grooves 12'.are of course formed with grooves confrontingthe grooves in the oppositeface of the disks 28. These grooves or passages 12, are, theanti-friction bearings heretofore referred to and the construction ofthe remainder of the propeller is the same as that heretofore described.A propeller with six blades or even eight blades can be formed by usingthe corresponding number of disks 28 and 11" on the principleillustrated in Figs: 5, 6 and 7 and it willbe observed that where morethan two blades are used, the blades will be disposed in differentplanes so .that one set of blades will not rotate through the dead airof another set of blades.

In Fig. 8 I illustrate a blade such as I of course, provided with preferto use on this propeller wherein about i 65% of the resistive surface-ofthe blade is on the same side as the short radial arm 17 of the blade.In other words, these blades are nearly balanced, but not quite. As aconsequence of this unbalanced condition ofa propeller in i blades arereversible. In these figures, 30 designates the propeller shaft and 31the two disks within which the shanks of the propeller blades 32 arerotatablgz mounted in the manner heretofore describe each shank beingprovided with the radial arm 33 as heretofore described. Slidinglymounted upon the propeller shaft, is a slidin collar 34 having therein"a groove for a shipper ring 35. The collar 34 is slotted at a pluralityof points, as illustrated in Fig. 10 and pivotally mounted in theseslots are the latches 36 having downwardly, and outwardl extendingterminal portions. 37. The sha t 30 is provided with a plurality ofnotches or circumferential grooves 38 with which the latches 36 areadapted to engage. I, have shown three of these latches though moremaybe used. The collar 34 is splined upon the shaft '30 so as to rotatetherewith.

The shipper ring has a pair of laterally projecting ears 39 and to theseears is connected a yoke 40 providingtwo arms which extend on eitherside of the propeller shaft and extend to these ears. Thearms of theyoke 40 are connected to form a rod 41 which constitutes part of theyoke, which in turn is pivoted to an actuating lever42. In order toengage and disengage the latches 37 from the notches 38 I' mount uponthe collar 34 the sliding ring 43 which has opposltely extending ears 44through which pass rods 45 which are mounted in suitable guides inthe40, these rods joining each other, then extending downward as a. singlerod, as at 46 and then being connected to a bell crank lever 47 mountedupon any suitable support, as for instance the pivotal support for thelever 42, this bell crank lever having a linked connection 48 to a handgrip 49 of the usual form.

Surrounding the rods 45 are the coiled compression springs 50, whichbear at their lower ends against brackets 51 on the yoke 40 and at theirupper ends bear against 'the ears 44. It will be seen that these springs1 act to urge the ring 43 to a position where the ring closely surroundsthe latches 36 and forces these latches inward, but that if the handgrip 49 be operated this ring 43 will be drawn longitudinally on thecollar 34 and will engage the outer ends 37 of the latches, raising thelatches out ofengagement with the'notches '38. Then the collar 34 maybeshifted longitudinally on the shaft by means of the lever 42 or likemechanism.

The operatin of the construction illustrated in Figs. 9 and 10 is asfollows Assuming that the collar 34 is so adjusted that the governorarms 23 are at -ri ht angles to the driving shaft, as illustrate in'Fig.-11, then the blades of the propeller will be turned parallel to theplane of their rotation and will offer the least possible resistance torotary motion. A rapid rotation of the shaft,

'tion shown in Fig. 12.

yoke

is in full flight. If, now, the engine is started with the governor armsat neutral position,

that is, as shown at Fig. 11, then when it is desired to start themachine the collar 34 is pulled back toward the o era-tor to the posihismovement will ropeller blades to the position ig. 12 and enga e the proelller s t e shift the shown in blades with the resistance 0 the air.

resistance ofthe air to the movement of the blade will be greater atstartin than at any other time, the unbalanced bla es will naturallyassume the position shown in Fig. 12 and will cause the blades to holdthe governor armclose to the shaft, but as the plane gains speed theresistance of the air to the plane grows less, that is, the load on theengine is less, more power is therefore transmitted to the propellershaft, the speed'of the propeller shaft is increased and the governorautomatically "draws the propeller blades to a steeper angle so thatthey may still engage with the air through which they are travel- 'ingso rapidly. In other words, when the load on the engine is relativelygreat, that is, in starting the plane, the speed of the propeller shaftis naturally less and at this time the blades will be given but arelatively slight inclination relative to their plane of rotation, butas the speed of the propeller shaft increases, in other. words, as theplane gains headway, the. governor arms will be thrown outward whichwill automaticall shift the blades to a position where the1r pitch isgreater and where, therefore, they can secure the maximum pull or pushon the air.

If'the collar 34 be placed in neutral position when the machine is infull flight, the propeller blades will automatically swing to a positionwhere they will'offer the least re sistance to the air and the governorarms will exert but little force, if any, on the blades because thecentrifugal force causes the governor arms to take a position at rightangles to the shaft. There is a stop carrled by the ears on which thegovernor arms are mounts ed limiting this movement of the governor armsso that they cannot move outward beyond a plane at right angles to theplane of rotation, while in this position the engine should be keptrunning slowly. Again, if it was desired'to slow down quickly to makeobservation or to make a landing, the blades may be thrown. to a reverseposition by push- .ing -the' collar '34 forward as illustrated in Fig.13, which will slow up the movement of the plane while the engine isworking.

With this construction it is obvious that automaticall crease ordecrease their pitch and that by doing this the full horse power of themotor may be used without causing the motor to race.

Vlfile I have illustrated a construction which I believeto beparticularly effective and which is very simple, yet it will be obviousthat many minor changes may be made in the construction of the partswith- I out departing from the spirit of the invention as defined intheappended claims.

- 1. A propeller having a propeller shaft, confronting disks mountedupon the shaft and mutually ooved to provide spindle passages exten ingtangentially to a circle concentric to the axis of the shaft, propellershaving spindles rotatably mounted in said passages and extendingentirely across the disks and beyond the disks on each side, means forrotating said spindles, the extremities of the spindles opposite theblades being formed with angularly extending arms, means connected tosaid arms whereby the spindles may be rotated to thereby control thepitch of the blades, and means detachably engaging the disks with eachother.

2. A propeller including a shaft, confronting disks mounted on the shaftand rotatable therewith, the confronting faces of the-disks beingtangentially grooved to provide spindle passages extending entirelyacross the faces of said disks, blades having shanks, and metallicsleeves disposed in said passages and rotatably mounted therein andengaged with the shanks of the blades, each of said sleeves carrying atits end remote from the blade and beyond the edges of the disks anangularly projecting arm, and con trollable means operatively engagedwithsaid' arms whereby the sleeves and attached blades may be. rotatedaround their axes.

3. A propeller com rising a power operated propeller shaft, bladesrotatably mounted thereon and independently rotatable around their ownaxes, a member slidablymounted upon the shaft, governor arms pivotallymounted on said member, said governor arms being operatively conrectedto the propeller blades to cause the axial rotation of said propellerblades when the governor arms are moved under the action of centrifugalforce, and manually adjusts able means for shifting said governor armsupporting member longitudinally on the shaftto thereby lessen orincrease the distance between the governor arm supporting member and theblades.

4. The combination with a power oper and for independent rotation aroundtheir own axes, the axis of rotation of each blade being disposed at oneside of its center, of a manually shiftable supporting member slidablymounted on the shaft, centrifugally actuated governor arms ivoted uponsaid supporting member and operatively connected to said blades to causethe rotation of the blades on their own axes upon an inward or outwardmovement of the governor arms under the action of centrifugal force, andmanually operable means for shifting said. member.

6. The combination with a power operated propeller shaft and a propellermounted thereon having radial blades rotating with the propeller andeach blade being independently rotatable around its own axis and eachblade having a radially projecting arm, a longitudinally shiftable,controlled member mounted upon governor arms links connecting the freeends of the governor arms with the arms on the propeller blade, thelongitudinal movement of the supporting member acting to shift thegovernor arms into or out of neutral position without affecting thepropeller blades.

7. A propeller comprising a power operated propeller shaft, radialblades rotatably mounted on the shaft and rotatable therethe shaft,

manually pivoted to said member, and

to one side. of its center, a longitudinally shiftable collar mountedfor rotation upon the propeller shaft and having centrifugally actuatedgovernor arms operatively connected to the blades to cause the rotationof said blades as the governor arms are shifted outward undercentrifugal action, and manually operable means for shifting said collaralong the propeller shaftand holding it in its shifted position.

8. A propeller comprising a power operated propeller shaft, radialblades rotatably mounted upon the shaft and rotatable therewith, acollar slidably mounted upon the shaft and rotatable therewith, aplurality of .governor arms pivoted to the collar and 9. A propellercomprising a power operated propeller shaft, radially disposed propellerblades mounted on' the propeller shaft for rotation therewith, theropeller blades being individually rotatab e around their own axes andhaving radially extending arms, a collar slidingly mounted on thepropeller shaft, centrifugally actuated governor arms pivoted to thecollar, links connecting the free ends of the governor arms to the armsof the propeller blades, a shipper ring loosely engaging the collar, amanually actuatable yoke connected to said shipper rin to shift, it,latches mounted upon the col ar, the propeller shaft having notches inwhich said latches are adapted to engage, a ring mounted upon the collarand shiftable therealong, said ringin one position holding the latchesshifted inward and in the other position holding the latches shiftedoutward,

and manually actuatable means for shifting said ring and the latches andmounted in connection with the means for shifting the collar. I

so 10. A propeller comprising a power operated propeller" shaft,radially extending blades mounted on the shaft for rotation therewith,the blades having shanks rotatablysupported upon the shaft, said shanksbeing disposed to one side of the middle'axis of the blades whereby theblades are unbalanced, each of said shanks having a radially extendingarm, a collar mounted upon the shaft for sliding movement thereon butfor rotation with the shaft, governor arms pivoted upon the collar foroutward swinging movement under centrifugal action, links operativelyconnecting the governor arms to said arms on the shank whereby to rotatethe blades and increase the pitch of the blades as the governor arms arethrown outward the unbalanced blades tending as they are rotated againstthe pressure of air to draw said governor arms inward into parallelrelation to the propeller shaft, and manually operable means forshifting the collar along the shaft and to lock the collar in any.shifted position.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my signature in the presence oftwo witnesses.

F. N. CAsB RN, W. E. Tnourson,

